My name is Emma and I am a nail polish addict...
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Wednesday, 1 August 2012

a-england Galahad and a bit of a ramble!

I love a-england, looking back over my mani's since June, I seem to have used them almost every single time!

My first order of a-england polishes was 15 bottles, I almost did not buy Galahad as I "thought" I had something similar already in these:

China Glaze Aqua Baby

Boots No 7 Totally Teal

But then it arrived and is nothing like either of these!

a-england Galahad

Galahad is a wonder sea green / teal colour. The formula is great, it can provide full cover in one coat, but I overbrushed and ended up applying two due to my bad application rather than actually needing two coats.

I love how the colour looks, this is 2x Nail Envy, 2x Galahad, 1x Seche.

We went out more or less as soon as I had taken these and inevitably I "dinged" a nail, so I found myself thinking of ways to hide it. I really must buy Smudge Fixer - is it an Orly polish? is it any good? - for moments like this, as this simple single colour kept drawing my eye and looked so good! To hide the "ding" I came up with this:

But I hated it. In the end at 9.30pm I cleaned my nails off (with the acetone I now have!) and re-did them with just Galahad again. The finish is so glossy, especially with Seche, the colour so rich. The formula seems to self level, but I found myself tempted to overbrush again which is why I ended up with two layers on second mani too.

I currently have a huge lemming for ManGlaze ILF after seeing Sarah from Samarium's Swatches post pictures on Facebook and thought maybe mattifying this could kill the lemming, however my China Glaze Matte Magic is a big lump of gunk still despite Seche Restore, so for now the lemming lives!

a-england polishes all seem to have a good wear time, well as good as it gets for me tends to be 3 days max, then I get bored and change them. I love the formula and the brushes, I love the service Adina offers, I have contacted her twice regarding orders and tweeted a couple of times to thank her. The price is fair considering the quality and the free worldwide shipping offered. The delivery is usually very quick, although the recent 5 is a magic number offer meant my last order took a little longer than usual. Generally my a-englands are one coat wonders and many are great for stamping. The a-england website can be found here. I believe both Llarowe and Ninja Polish sell a-england, but as I'm in UK it seems silly me ordering from overseas and paying more for them as I would have to pay shipping, plus the carbon footprint would be crazy!

I feel the need to add a disclaimer that - despite my rave review - I haven't been paid or bribed to write this, the opinions are solely based on my experiences!

Just as an aside I have noticed how much my nails have grown since starting using Nail Envy as I have been admiring looking at them with Galahad on. I started blogging using tumblr, and seeing this image above when I had just broken my finger and with similar colours really made me realise!! The picture above is 10 weeks old, I kept my nails this short until I started using Nail Envy as a base 4 weeks ago, I used to use it for many years, then I got a little lazy and just skipped having a base (bad Emma!) so now I have the staining to prove my laziness. And my nails were in shit condition for all that time... LOL!!

2 comments:

I use Orly Smudge Fixer several ways. When I am painting my nails, if I ding or smudge mid-manicure, the SF almost always is enough to smooth things out to where a second coat goes on evenly. No need to start from scratch & reapply base, etc. The SF also restores shine if you get small scratches that dull the polish without actually cutting deep into the manicure surface. And, with creme polishes, I can patch up shrinkage or tip wear and use the SF on top to smooth everything out. I have a bottle of similar stuff from Nail Aid in my desk at work, but I think SF works better.